janina white
Commercial Lawyer turned Public
Legal analysis. Governance expertise. Technology-informed problem solving.
I am a solicitor of England and Wales working across company and commercial law, public law, data protection and AI governance. I help individuals and organisations understand complex problems, identify their legal options and make decisions supported by evidence.
My professional background
My legal career began in company and commercial law, building a practice concerned with how businesses are structured, how decisions are made and how responsibility is allocated.
Since 2011 I was involved advising private clients, family enterprises and business stakeholders on commercial structures, governance, confidentiality, regulatory exposure and disputes.
I have a practising certificate in England and Wales but I am also a member of Law Society of the Republic of Ireland as well as the American Bar Association.
During my current and past work places my responsibilities included governance and compliance across 13 jurisdictions, coordination of external counsel, cross-border restructuring, commercial negotiations and the development of sanctions, KYC, AML and trade-control programmes.
That experience shaped my approach to legal work. A legal position must be understood alongside the organisation’s decision-making processes, information flows and practical capacity to implement it.
Over the past two years, my work has increasingly focused on public law and institutional accountability. Alongside that development, I have built a practice in AI governance that connects legal obligations with the design of systems and professional workflows.
Qualifications and professional memberships
I am a solicitor of England and Wales working across company and commercial law, public law, data protection and AI governance. I help individuals and organisations understand complex problems, identify their legal options and make decisions supported by evidence.
My professional background
My legal career began in company and commercial law, building a practice concerned with how businesses are structured, how decisions are made and how responsibility is allocated.
Since 2011 I was involved advising private clients, family enterprises and business stakeholders on commercial structures, governance, confidentiality, regulatory exposure and disputes.
I have a practising certificate in England and Wales but I am also a member of Law Society of the Republic of Ireland as well as the American Bar Association.
During my current and past work places my responsibilities included governance and compliance across 13 jurisdictions, coordination of external counsel, cross-border restructuring, commercial negotiations and the development of sanctions, KYC, AML and trade-control programmes.
That experience shaped my approach to legal work. A legal position must be understood alongside the organisation’s decision-making processes, information flows and practical capacity to implement it.
Over the past two years, my work has increasingly focused on public law and institutional accountability. Alongside that development, I have built a practice in AI governance that connects legal obligations with the design of systems and professional workflows.
Qualifications and professional memberships
- Solicitor of England and Wales.
- Member of the Law Society of Ireland.
- Associate of the Chartered Governance Institute.
- Full member of STEP — TEP.
- LLM in Legal Practice and Graduate Diploma in Law — BPP Law School.
Areas of expertise
Please see below
I advise on the legal and governance questions that arise as businesses develop, enter agreements, operate internationally and manage risk.
My experience includes:
My experience includes:
- Corporate structures, governance arrangements and cross-border restructuring.
- Drafting and reviewing commercial agreements.
- Confidentiality, supplier and platform terms.
- Contractual responsibility and risk allocation.
- Coordination of external advisers across jurisdictions.
- Sanctions, KYC, AML and trade-control frameworks.
My governance work draws on experience as both an in-house lawyer and a company secretary.
I design board structures, reporting arrangements, policies, decision records and escalation mechanisms. I understand the practical challenge of translating a legal obligation into a process that people can follow and an organisation can demonstrate.
My focus includes:
I design board structures, reporting arrangements, policies, decision records and escalation mechanisms. I understand the practical challenge of translating a legal obligation into a process that people can follow and an organisation can demonstrate.
My focus includes:
- Clear allocation of responsibility and decision-making authority.
- Board reporting and documented oversight.
- Compliance policies and implementation controls.
- Exception handling and escalation.
- Records that explain the evidence, reasoning and approval behind a decision.
My public-law work examines the relationship between institutional authority, individual rights and the decisions that affect people’s lives.
This work has deepened my interest in questions such as:
This work has deepened my interest in questions such as:
- What decision was actually made, and by whom?
- What legal authority supported it?
- What evidence and assumptions informed it?
- Were relevant representations considered?
- What reasons were communicated?
- What route exists for an effective challenge or correction?
Information can shape decisions long before the person concerned knows it exists. Its source, accuracy, classification, accessibility and onward use therefore matter.
My work encompasses UK GDPR and GDPR, confidentiality, privacy-conscious workflows, international data handling and information-governance controls.
I examine how information moves through an organisation, who can access it, what purpose its use serves and how errors or disputed accounts can be addressed.
My experience includes:
My work encompasses UK GDPR and GDPR, confidentiality, privacy-conscious workflows, international data handling and information-governance controls.
I examine how information moves through an organisation, who can access it, what purpose its use serves and how errors or disputed accounts can be addressed.
My experience includes:
- Privacy-by-design and data minimisation.
- DPIA-aligned privacy and AI risk assessments.
- Access controls, redaction and retention-aware workflows.
- Data-handling and confidentiality provisions in contracts.
- Supplier and platform risk.
- Information-rights disputes and the treatment of sensitive records.
I bring together law, governance and system design. I translate professional duties and information-governance requirements into operating models, policies, review standards and implementation controls.
My work includes:
Their value lies in extending analytical capacity while preserving professional judgement. Sources must remain traceable, uncertainty must remain visible, and consequential conclusions require verification. Responsibility for my work remains mine.
My work includes:
- AI acceptable-use frameworks.
- Human oversight and defined decision rights.
- Verification standards for AI-generated outputs.
- Privacy-conscious knowledge retrieval.
- Evaluation methods, test sets and failure classifications.
- Audit trails, change control and incident escalation.
- Supplier terms addressing confidentiality, data handling and responsibility.
Their value lies in extending analytical capacity while preserving professional judgement. Sources must remain traceable, uncertainty must remain visible, and consequential conclusions require verification. Responsibility for my work remains mine.
Since 2025, I have worked as a legal educator, SQE tutor and assessor through BARBRI and independent legal education.
My teaching focuses on issue-spotting, legal reasoning, professional judgement and clear client communication.
I help learners move from knowing a legal rule to applying it accurately to a particular set of facts.
I am also the author of The AI-Ready Solicitor / AI Readiness manuscript, exploring verification, responsible AI use, professional judgement and the implications of AI for legal education.
Writing and teaching give me another way to examine difficult questions: explaining them clearly enough that others can evaluate the reasoning for themselves.
My teaching focuses on issue-spotting, legal reasoning, professional judgement and clear client communication.
I help learners move from knowing a legal rule to applying it accurately to a particular set of facts.
I am also the author of The AI-Ready Solicitor / AI Readiness manuscript, exploring verification, responsible AI use, professional judgement and the implications of AI for legal education.
Writing and teaching give me another way to examine difficult questions: explaining them clearly enough that others can evaluate the reasoning for themselves.
How I work
I begin by establishing the problem: the relevant facts, the legal framework, the available evidence and the outcome being sought.
I then examine the options, their practical consequences and the information still needed to make a sound decision. Where several jurisdictions, institutions or competing accounts are involved, I organise the material so that the reasoning can be followed and tested.
My approach combines careful analysis, clear communication and the ability to work calmly with ambiguity. Technology supports that work; legal judgement directs it.
Discuss a legal or governance matter
For enquiries about legal advice, consultancy, AI governance, training or professional collaboration, please get in touch with a brief description of the matter and the support you are seeking.
I begin by establishing the problem: the relevant facts, the legal framework, the available evidence and the outcome being sought.
I then examine the options, their practical consequences and the information still needed to make a sound decision. Where several jurisdictions, institutions or competing accounts are involved, I organise the material so that the reasoning can be followed and tested.
My approach combines careful analysis, clear communication and the ability to work calmly with ambiguity. Technology supports that work; legal judgement directs it.
Discuss a legal or governance matter
For enquiries about legal advice, consultancy, AI governance, training or professional collaboration, please get in touch with a brief description of the matter and the support you are seeking.
